Yamato (Kantai Collection)
Yamato (大和?), named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, was the lead ship of the Yamato class of battleships that served with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She and her sister ship, Musashi, were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 tonnes at full load and armed with nine 46 cm (18.1 inch) main guns. Neither ship survived the war. Laid down in 1937 and formally commissioned a week after the Pearl Harbor attack in late 1941, Yamato was designed to counter the numerically superior battleship fleet of the United States, Japan's main rival in the Pacific. Throughout 1942 she served as the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and in June 1942 Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto directed the fleet from her bridge during the Battle of Midway, a disastrous defeat for Japan. Musashi took over as the Combined Fleet flagship in early 1943, and Yamato spent the rest of the year, and much of 1944, moving between the major Japanese naval bases of Truk and Kure in response to American threats. Although she was present at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, Yamato played no part in the battle. The only time she fired her main guns at enemy surface targets was in October 1944, when she was sent to engage American forces invading the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Japanese were unaware that Admiral Halsey's entire massive fast carrier task force with battleships had been successfully lured away by a feint. Left behind was only a slow escort carrier task force armed against ground forces with no hope of protecting vulnerable troop transports from the Yamato. But as the American light ships resembled larger cruisers and carriers, the Japanese believed they were fighting the main fleet. The massive guns of Yamato would not be turned against battleships, but in the Battle off Samar would instead be a seemingly mismatched showdown against the industrial production of small and inexpensive light ships and carriers. Nevertheless desperate sailors and aviators delivered accurate 5 in shellfire and torpedoes from ships as small as destroyer escorts. These attacks wrought enough havoc on the Japanese surface force to turn them back, but only after inflicting losses comparable in ships and men to the Battle of Midway. During 1944, the balance of naval power in the Pacific decisively turned against Japan and, by early 1945, the Japanese fleet was much depleted and critically short of fuel stocks in the home islands, limiting its usefulness. In April 1945, in a desperate attempt to slow the Allied advance, Yamato was dispatched on a one way voyage to Okinawa, where it was intended that she should protect the island from invasion and fight until destroyed. The task force was spotted south of Kyushu by US submarines and aircraft, and on 7 April 1945 she was sunk by American carrier-based bombers and torpedo bombers with the loss of most of her crew. Appearance Depicted as having long brown hair in a ponytail with multiple cherry blossoms in her hair, and often carrying an oriental umbrella with a shaft based on the battleship's distinctive mast. She wears a single thighhigh, which, with her first remodel, bears the slogan that her admiral posted for the suicidal Operation Ten-Go, the final operation the IJN undertook, where Yamato, Yahagi, and numerous destroyers were sunk by American aircraft. Personality She is a strong, yet shy and polite, ship that has to frequently correct the Admiral about being called "Yamato Hotel". In the anime, Yamato finally makes her appearance in episode 8, and oversees the management of the Truk Lagoon Base. Said base, however, seems more like a four-star hotel than an anchorage on the front lines. Due to her management duties, Yamato has barely any battlefield experience, but the truth of the matter is that, despite being essentially the most powerful ship in the fleet, she's far too expensive resource-wise to sortie. This fact bothers her greatly. Gallery Images Yamato.png item_0000010749_H1P5oA1p_01.jpg 602f3696b84f15004d632ba239b19ea9.jpg b4b725cdeebd27eda5a23033e90a832a.jpg e7b503fa8107cf5889678c48319121b3.jpg d17e96dfaec9623298d0d4b86e7c26aa.jpg img001_large1.jpg Trivia *2013 August event special map E-4 completion reward *Requires 2.5 times more fuel compared to Nagato class battleships. *Was cynically referred as "Yamato Hotel", a hotel located in Dalian China during WW2 time, as she never took part in any major battle pre-1944 due to her high consumption and her status as IJN's flagship. Referred the same in-game as for same reason. **In the Kancolle anime, Yamato seems to dislike being called a hotel as she felt that she was not fulfilling her duty as a kanmusu due to the same reason stated above. *Yamato's remodel art features a 'Hirihoukenten (非理法権天)' kneesock (originally a flag). It reflects one of the old philosophy in feudal Japan where foolishness (非) is not above sensibility (理), sensibility is not above law (法), law is not above authority (権), and authority is not above divinity (天). As the emperor was treated as a divine figure in imperial Japan it has a meaning of "no men can oppose the (divine) emperor". A slogan adopted by the Imperial Japanese navy, this flag was hung on Yamato on her final voyage towards Okinawa. *Sunk 7 April 1945 north of Okinawa (at 30° 22′ 0″ N, 128° 4′ 0″ E) in the famed Operation Ten-Go, along with Yahagi, Isokaze, Kasumi, Hamakaze and Asashimo. *Wreck discovered on August 1, 1985, in 1,120 ft of water in the East China Sea 180 miles Southwest of Kyushu and North of Okinawa. *She wears an Armband that resembles the Maritime signal Flag for the letter "Z", the Z flag played a major role in Japanese Naval History. On May 27, 1905, Admiral Heihachirō Tōgō raised the Z flag on his flagship the IJN Mikasa before the start of the Battle of Tsushima and the Z flag was raised on the Akagi on the eve of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. The raising of the flag means the following: "The fate of Imperial Japan hangs on this one battle; all hands will exert themselves and do their best." 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